Remove AV Security 2012 (Uninstall Guide)

AV Security 2012 is a computer infection from the Rogue.WinAVPro family, which includes other rogues such as OpenCloud Security. This infection is classified as a rogue
anti-spyware program because it uses false security alerts and fake scan results to try and trick you into thinking that your computer is infected so that you will then purchase it. This infection is promoted through hacked sites that use exploits to install this program onto your computer without your permission.

Once AV Security 2012 is started it will do a fake scan on your computer that will state that there are numerous infections present. It will then prompt you to remove these so-called infections, but will not allow you to do so unless you first purchase the program. Please understand, that AV Security 2012 is scripted to show you these fake scan results regardless of the computer you are on and how clean it is. Therefore, do not be concerned by any of the scan results as they are only being shown to scare you into thinking that you have a serious computer problem. AV Security 2012 also pretends to update its virus definitions from the Internet. In reality, though, when you update the program it is not actually downloading anything but rather just pretending to do so.

Some installations of the Rogue.WinAVPro family may be bundling the ZeroAccess rootkit along with the rogue. This rootkit will terminate any process that scans one of the items it is protecting in the Windows Registry or the file system. It will then change the permissions on that program so that when you attempt to run it again you will receive an access denied message. If you are infected with this Rootkit, then the following guide will not be able to remove the infection unless you first remove the rootkit. You can attempt to remove the rootkit using TDSSKiller as outlined in this guide:

AV Security 2012 screen shotFor more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.There are a total of 4 images you can view.

AV Security 2012 will also terminate the majority of programs that you attempt to run. When you start an executable it will automatically be closed and you will then be shown a security warning from the Windows taskbar stating that the program is infected. The text of this message is:

Just like the scan results, this infection message is fake and should be ignored.

While running, AV Security 2012 will display a variety of fake security alerts and warnings that are designed to make you think your computer has a serious security problem. The various text of the alerts that this program will show are listed below:

Serious security vulnerabilities were detected on this computer. Your privacy and personal data may be unsafe. Do you want to protect your PC?

svchost.exe
svchost.exe was replaced with unauthorized program.
It has encountered a problem and needs to close.
If you were in the middle of something, the information you were working on might be lost.Please tell Microsoft about this problem.
We have created an error report that you can send to us. We will treat this report as confidential and anonymous.

Windows Security Alert
To help protect your computer, Windows Firewall has blocked some features of this program.
Do you want to keep blocking this program?Name: Zeus Trojan
Publisher: Unauthorized

Warning! Infection found
Unwanted software (malware) or tracking cookies have been found during last scan. It is highly recommended to remove it from your computer.Keylogger Zeus was detected and put in quarantine.Keylogger Zeus is a very dangerous software used by criminals to steal personal data such as credit card information, access to banking accounts, passwords to social networks and e-mails.

Windows Security Center
Serious security vulnerabilities were detected on this computer. Your privacy and personal data may be unsafe. Do you want to protect your PC?

AV Security 2012 will also configure Windows to use a Proxy Server. This Proxy Server will intercept all Internet requests and instead of displaying your requested web pages, will show fake security alerts stating the web site you are visiting is malicious. Finally, this rogue will add entries to your C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\HOSTS file that allows the developer to control what sites you ultimately go to when you attempt to visit google.com, yahoo.com, bing.com, or facebook.com

As you can see, AV Security 2012 was developed to scare you into purchasing your program by attempting to make you think your computer is infected. It goes without
saying that you should definitely not buy AV Security 2012, and if you already have,
please contact your credit card company and dispute the charges stating that
the program is a scam and a computer virus. To remove AV Security 2012 and other
related malware, please use the free removal guide below.

Print out these instructions as we may need to close every window that is
open later in the fix.

Reboot your computer into Safe Mode with Networking. To
do this, turn your computer off and then back on and immediately when you
see anything on the screen, start tapping the F8 key on your
keyboard. Eventually you will be brought to a menu similar to the one below:

Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, select Safe Mode with Networking
and press Enter on your keyboard. If you are having trouble
entering safe mode, then please use the following tutorial: How
to start Windows in Safe Mode

Windows will now boot into safe mode with networking and prompt you to login
as a user. Please login as the same user you were previously logged in with
in the normal Windows mode. Then proceed with the rest of the steps.

It is possible that the infection you are trying to remove will not allow
you to download files on the infected computer. If this is the case, then
you will need to download the files requested in this guide on another computer
and then transfer them to the infected computer. You can transfer the files
via a CD/DVD, external drive, or USB flash drive.

This infection may change your Windows settings to use a proxy server that
will not allow you to browse any pages on the Internet with Internet Explorer
or update security software. Regardless of the web browser you use, for these
instructions we will first need need to fix this problem so that we can download
the utilities we need to remove this infection.

Please start Internet Explorer, and when the program is open, click on the Tools menu and then select Internet Options as shown in the image below.

You should now be in the Internet Options screen as shown in the image below.

Now click on the Connections tab as designated by the blue
arrow above.

You will now be at the Connections tab as shown by the image below.

Now click on the Lan Settings button as designated by the
blue arrow above.

You will now be at the Local Area Network (LAN) settings screen as shown
by the image below.

Under the Proxy Server section, please uncheck the checkbox labeled Use
a proxy server for your LAN. Then press the OK button
to close this screen. Then press the OK button to close the
Internet Options screen. Now that you have disabled the proxy server you will
be able to browse the web again with Internet Explorer.

As this infection is known to be bundled with the TDSS rootkit infection, you should
also run a program that can be used to scan for this infection. Please follow
the steps in the following guide:

If after running TDSSKiller, you are still unable to update Malwarebytes' Anti-malware or continue to have Google search result redirects, then you should post a virus removal request using the steps
in the following topic rather than continuing with this guide:

If TDSSKiller requires you to reboot, please allow it to do so. After you reboot, reboot back into Safe Mode with Networking again.

When in Safe More with Networking, we must first end the processes that belong to
AV Security 2012
so that it does not interfere with the cleaning procedure. To do this, please
download RKill to your desktop from the following link.

When at the download page, click on the Download Now button
labeled iExplore.exe download link. When you are prompted
where to save it, please save it on your desktop.

Once it is downloaded, double-click on the iExplore.exe
icon in order to automatically attempt to stop any processes associated with
AV Security 2012
and other Rogue programs. Please be patient while the program looks for various
malware programs and ends them. When it has finished, the black window will
automatically close and you can continue with the next step. If you get a
message that RKill is an infection, do not be concerned. This message is just
a fake warning given by
AV Security 2012
when it terminates programs that may potentially remove it. If you run into
these infections warnings that close RKill, a trick is to leave the warning
on the screen and then run RKill again. By not closing the warning, this typically
will allow you to bypass the malware trying to protect itself so that RKill
can terminate
AV Security 2012
. So, please try running RKill until the malware is no longer running. You
will then be able to proceed with the rest of the guide. Do not reboot
your computer after running RKill as the malware programs will start again.

If you continue having problems running RKill, you can download the other
renamed versions of RKill from the RKill
download page. Both of these files are renamed copies of RKill, which
you can try instead. Please note that the download page will open in a new
browser window or tab.

At this point you should download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, or MBAM, to scan your computer for any any infections or adware that may be present. Please download Malwarebytes from the following
location and save it to your desktop:

Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including
this one.

Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe.
This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.

When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue
with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings
and when the program has finished installing, make sure you leave Launch
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware checked. Then click on the Finish button. If MalwareBytes prompts you to reboot, please do not do so.

MBAM will now start and you will be at the main screen as shown below.

Please click on the Scan Now button to start the scan. If there is an update available for Malwarebytes it will automatically download and install it before performing the scan.

MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can
take quite a while, so we suggest you do something else and periodically
check on the status of the scan to see when it is finished.

When MBAM is finished scanning it will display a screen that displays any malware that it has detected. Please note that the infections found may be different
than what is shown in the image below due to the guide being updated for newer versions of MBAM.

You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove
all the seleted malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry
keys and add them to the programs quarantine. When removing the files, MBAM
may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message
stating that it needs to reboot, please allow it to do so. Once your computer
has rebooted, and you are logged in, please continue with the rest of the
steps.

You can now exit the MBAM program.

As this infection also changes your Windows HOSTS file, we want to replace
this file with the default version for your operating system. Please note
that if you or your company has added custom entries to your HOSTS file then
you will need to add them again after restoring the default HOSTS file. In
order to protect itself,
AV Security 2012
changes the permissions of the HOSTS file so you can't edit or delete
it. To fix these permissions please download the following batch file and
save it to your desktop:

When the file has finished downloading, double-click on the hosts-perm.bat
file that is now on your desktop. If Windows asks if you if you are sure you
want to run it, please allow it to run. Once it starts you will see a small
black window that opens and then quickly goes away. This is normal and is
nothing to be worried about. You should now be able to access your HOSTS file.

We now need to delete the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\HOSTS file. Once it is deleted, download the following HOSTS file that corresponds
to your version of Windows and save it in the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc folder. If the contents of the HOSTS file opens in your browser when you click
on a link below then right-click on the appropriate link and select Save
Target As..., if in Internet Explorer, or Save Link As..,
if in Firefox, to download the file.

Your Windows HOSTS file should now be back to the default one from when Windows
was first installed.

Now reboot your computer.

After rebooting if you are still unable to access the Internet, please confirm that your browser is not configured to use a proxy by following the instructions in steps 4-7. It is not required to perform these steps in Windows Safe Mode.

As many rogues and other malware are installed through vulnerabilities found
in out-dated and insecure programs, it is strongly suggested that you use
Secunia PSI to scan for vulnerable programs on your computer. A tutorial on
how to use Secunia PSI to scan for vulnerable programs can be found here:

%System% is a variable that refers to the Windows System folder. By default this is C:\Windows\System for Windows 95/98/ME, C:\Winnt\System32 for Windows NT/2000, or C:\Windows\System32 for Windows XP/Vista/7/8.

%Desktop% means that the file is located directly on your desktop. This is C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\<Current User>\Desktop\ for Windows 2000/XP, and C:\Users\<Current User>\Desktop\ for Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

%AppData% refers to the current users Application Data folder. By default, this is C:\Documents and Settings\<Current User>\Application Data for Windows 2000/XP. For Windows Vista and Windows 7 it is C:\Users\<Current User>\AppData\Roaming.

%StartMenu% refers to the Windows Start Menu. For Windows 95/98/ME it refers to C:\windows\start menu\, for Windows XP, Vista, NT, 2000 and 2003 it refers to C:\Documents and Settings\<Current User>\Start Menu\, and for Windows Vista/7/8 it is C:\Users\<Current User>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu.